Author: Padili Mikomangwa

World Bank’s (WB) research on development economics which is focused on identifying successful development polices, has captured various significant insights in the world of development economics, and payment of health and education providers was in it, thus—there are crucial things to rethink to enhance the delivery of quality services.

According to the bank’s research, service providers—schoolteachers and health workers, in particular, are influenced by the payment incentives which dictate high-quality services. But how much they are paid also matters.

Taking the youngest continent in the globe into the context, Africa, of which its average real ages increased by 20 per cent between 2006 and 2017, supported by labour productivity gains, stand to benefit from revised payment schedules, as described by the bank.

Three ways service providers are paid

Fee-for-service is the first schedule of payment, that health workers and schoolteachers tend to get paid on, according to the specific services …

Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, and currently facing enormous workload in generating reliable power for the most diverse economy in Africa has been served with a compliance notice by the nation’s environment ministry, high levels of air pollution being the cause.

According to information from Bloomberg, Eskom’s biggest operational power plants are struggling to remain active as the pollution levels are not yet repaired accordingly.

The heavily relied on power utility has failed to fully repair pollution-abatement equipment at its 4 116-megawatt Kendal power plant that began malfunctioning in early 2018 and was damaged further in a strike later that year.

The ministry issued the notice in December saying the plant would need to shut down two of its six generating units, 1 and 5 if the action wasn’t taken to bring them back into compliance.

Hence, according to the notice, it demanded maintenance plans for the rest.

South …

Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economy has recorded the highest quarterly growth (in the fourth quarter—Q4) since the 2016 recession.

The economic growth rose to an annual rate of 2.55 per cent in the three months to the end of December, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed on Monday.

The NBS noted that, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 which recorded a growth rate of 2.38 per cent, this represents an increase of 0.17 per cent points and an increase of 0.27  per cent points when compared with the third quarter of 2019.

READ:Nigerian annual inflation soars to 12.1 per cent in January

The statistician highlighted that Nigeria’s economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors, whereby in Q4 the oil sector scored a decent increase of 7.98 points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2018.

Also, the non-oil …

The 2020 Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report that has been released this month reveals how Africa could reap high benefits in the near future.

The report is basically an in-depth analysis of current market dynamics, projections for the coming five years, and also a blueprint to helps various actors compete in a robust evolving industry ecosystem.

The report, which is the fifth in a series, published by the World Bank Group and the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA), drew in about 1,000 industry leaders, financiers and government representatives by showcasing key industry trends, advances in technology, finance, policy and social impacts.

The 2020 edition spotlighted the industry remarkably, in fact—the edition estimates that the off-grid solar sector currently caters lighting and other auxiliary services to over 420 million people.

Noting that the industry has made enormous efforts in the past decade to assist the developing countries to attain their energy …

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AngloGold Ashanti, third-largest gold-miner in the world with operations in South Africa on Friday has reported a 72 per cent jump in annual earnings. AngloGold reported that it nearly doubled free cash flow in 2019 to $129 million.

The miner attributed the earnings surge to the higher gold prices and robust operational performance from its Kibali, Geita, Tropicana and Iduapriem mines.

According to the miner’s statement, AngloGold Ashanti headline earning per share measure in South Africa, went up to 91 cents on December 31, 2019, from the previous year, while free cash flow before capital expenditure on growth projects, rose 106 per cent to $448 million.

However, the gold-miner statement noted that: AngloGold Ashanti invested sustaining capital of $494million in 2019 and has forecast an increase to between $640 million and $670 million in 2020.

Also, the additional investment will help the company convert existing resources into additional ore reserves …

Tanzania mining industry just got interesting as the leading miner in East Africa will start exporting tin, its base metals of tantalum and wolframite, mined in the northern part of Tanzania.

According to information from The Citizen, the green light came out after Tanzania sufficed all export requirements to become the fourth eligible nation in the Great Lakes Region after Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Prior to the export nod, Tanzania produced tin and its base metals, but it was not allowed to export them due to lack of certificates of origin, the necessary requirement for exports.

The Tanzanian Ministry of Minerals revealed via minerals deputy minister Stanslaus Nyongo yesterday that, the highly valued minerals were mostly exported illegally via neighbouring countries, which were issuing certificates.

Further, the deputy minister added that Great Lakes Region leaders placed restrictions on exports of tin and its base metals …

Egypt, one of Africa’s vibrant tourism destination, has recorded a 5.6 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the past six months, to December 2019, Reuters said a government statement revealed the information.

Tourism has been attributed to Egypt’s economic growth in the last three years, strong remittances from Egyptian workers abroad and recently discovered natural gas fields coming on stream.

Hence, the nation’s growth has mainly been driven by the state sector. The World Bank (WB) spotlighted the nation’s economy and noted that, on the sectoral side, gas extractives, wholesale and retail trade, real estate and construction have been the main drivers of growth.

Unemployment decreased to 7.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY19 (from 9.9 per cent a year earlier), although accompanied by shrinking labour force participation.

According to Reuters January poll, the economy is expected to grow 5.8 per cent in the fiscal year ending …

Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has seen its inflation quickened to nearly two years high in January as food shortages caused by border closures continued to drive up the price of staples, the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics revealed.

According to information from Bloomberg, the statistician report revealed that: consumer price rose to 12.1 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 12 per cent in December, which marks the fifth month of increases.

However, there were several crucial aspects in relation to the scenario, as revealed by Bloomberg.

It was highlighted that the nation’s monetary policy committee’s ability to raise interest rates to contain inflation is hampered by slow economic growth.

In January a Nigerian economist and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele raised the number of money banks to need to deposit at zero interest with the central bank to clear up …

Tanzania’s Social Action Fund (TASAF), a poverty-reduction base will get a $562 million loan to support its second phase.

According to information from The Citizen, over $800 will be spent during the five years of implementing the phase, officially launched earlier today by Tanzania’s President John Magufuli.

Also, the information revealed that the rest of the amount will be sourced from various other development partners including the Opec Fund for International Development set to issue $50 million.

However, TASAF director-general Ladislaus Mwamanga, highlighted that the programme goals are set to empower poor households with funds, known as ‘Productive Social Safety Net’ with which they can conduct their income-generating activities.

The safety net which was initiated in 2000, had over 1.1 households in Tanzania with over 5.2 people enrolled in the programme.

During the launch, it was revealed that TASAF spent over $692 million in poverty alleviation programmes national wide.

Also, …